A Practical Physiology: A Text-Book for Higher Schools

by Albert F. Blaisdell

Even if the desired sleep is procured, it is hardly the coveted rest, but a troubled and dreamy slumber, leaving in the morning the body quite unrefreshed, the head aching, the mouth dry, and the stomach utterly devoid of appetite. But far worse than even this condition is the slavish yielding to the habit, which soon becomes a bondage in which life is shorn of its wholesome pleasures, and existence becomes a burden.

303. Chloral. There are other preparations which have become instruments of direful and often fatal injury. Chloral is a powerful drug that has been much resorted to by unthinking persons to produce sleep. Others, yielding to a morbid reluctance to face the problems of life, have timidly sought shelter in artificial forgetfulness. To all such it is a false friend. Its promises are treason. It degrades the mind, tramples upon the morals, overpowers the will, and destroys life itself.

304. Cocaine, Ether, Chloroform, and Other Powerful Drugs. Another dangerous drug is Cocaine. Ether and chloroform, those priceless blessings to the human race if properly controlled, become instruments of death when carelessly trifled with. Persons who have been accustomed to inhale the vapor in slight whiffs for neuralgia or similar troubles do so at imminent hazard, especially if lying down. They are liable to become slowly unconscious, and so to continue the inhalation till life is ended.

There is still another class of drugs often carelessly used, whose effect, while less directly serious than those mentioned, is yet far from harmless. These drugs, which have sprung into popular use since the disease la grippe began its dreaded career, include phenacetine, antipyrine, antifebrine, and other similar preparations. These drugs have been seized by the public and taken freely and carelessly for all sorts and conditions of trouble. The random arrow may yet do serious harm. These drugs, products of coal-oil distillation, are powerful depressants. They lower the action of the heart and the tone of the nervous centers. Thus the effect of their continued use is to so diminish the vigor of the system as to aggravate the very disorder they are taken to relieve.

305. Effect of Tobacco on the Nervous System. That the use of tobacco produces a pernicious effect upon the nervous system is obvious from the indignant protest of the entire body against it when it is first used. Its poisonous character is amply shown by the distressing prostration and pallor, the dizziness and faintness, with extreme nausea and vomiting, which follow its employment by a novice.

The morbid effects of tobacco upon the nervous system of those who habitually use it are shown in the irregular and enfeebled action of the heart, with dizziness and muscular tremor. The character of the pulse shows plainly the unsteady heart action, caused by partial paralysis of the nerves controlling this organ. Old, habitual smokers often show an irritable and nervous condition, with sleeplessness, due doubtless to lack of proper brain nutrition.

All these results tend to prove that tobacco is really a nerve poison, and there is reason to suspect that the nervous breakdown of many men in mature life is often due to the continued use of this depressing agent. This is shown more especially in men of sedentary life and habits, as men of active habits and out-door life, experience less of the ill effects of tobacco.

Few, if any, habitual users of tobacco ever themselves approve of it. They all regret the habit, and many lament they are so enslaved to it that they cannot throw it off. They very rarely advise any one to follow their example.

306. Effects of Tobacco on the Mind. With this continuously depressing effect of tobacco upon the brain, it is little wonder that the mind may become enfeebled and lose its capacity for study or successful effort. This is especially true of the young. The growth and development of the brain having been once retarded, the youthful user of tobacco (especially the foolish cigarette-smoker) has established a permanent drawback which may hamper him all his life.

The young man addicted to the use of tobacco is often through its use retarded in his career by mental languor or weakening will power, and by mental incapacity. The keenness of mental perception is dulled, and the ability to seize and hold an abstract thought is impaired. True, these effects are not sharply obvious, as it would be impossible to contrast the present condition of any one person with what it might have been. But the comparison of large numbers conveys an instructive lesson. Scholars who start well and give promise of a good future fail by the way. The honors of the great schools, academies, and colleges are very largely taken by the tobacco abstainers. This is proved by the result of repeated and extensive comparisons of the advanced classes in a great number of institutions in this country and in Europe. So true is this that any young man who aspires to a noble career should bid farewell either to his honorable ambition or to his tobacco, for the two very rarely travel together. Consequently our military and naval academies and very many seminaries and colleges prohibit the use of tobacco by their students. For the same reasons the laws of many states very properly forbid the sale to boys of tobacco, and especially of cigarettes.